Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin Fox said that's the idea his police department and his partners in Franklin Lakes and Oakland are trying to dispel when it comes to drug use.

And now, it's oxycodone and Percocet, prescription pills for pain, that have become students' "designer drugs" of choice, according to Fox — which often can be found in their family's medicine cabinet. But misuse can lead to a more physically harrowing addiction: heroin.

According to the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, since April 1, there have been 14 heroin-related deaths in the county, four of which have occurred in the northwest communities of Franklin Lakes, Ramsey and Oakland.

The chiefs of the Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff police departments have collectively put together a repeat performance, scheduled for 7 p.m. May 7 at Ramapo High School, 131 Yawpo Ave., in Franklin Lakes, of a forum for parents they organized in November warning of the dangers of prescription drug abuse. Similar seminars have been held or planned in Ramsey and Midland Park.

"There's been a dramatic increase in the use of these drugs, teens using and selling," Oakland Police Chief Edward Kasper said. "This is a duplication of a program that was very well-received by parents, educators, administrators. It's highly informative."

"This is just for parents, though," Kasper said. "Kids are well informed and taken care of in educational programs that happen in school."

While the program's venue was at Indian Hills High School last year, this year, Kasper said it was purposely moved to Ramapo to accommodate parents.

"We're going to give parents the signs that something is going on," Fox said. "It's amazing the lengths people will go to in order to get the fix."

Fox cited one case in 2009 in which a member of the Wyckoff Board of Education, who was addicted to oxycodone, broke into Millers Pharmacy on Wyckoff Avenue to get his fix. .

Fox said such a brazen act is typical of how the need for the drug affects abusers.

"I've heard and seen that girls will pimp themselves out to get the money to buy what they need, and kids in general will steal from their families and just lie to their families no matter what," Fox said.

"I've been here in Wyckoff for 37 years, and in my early days, I never made a heroin arrest," he said.

But now, as the use of prescription painkillers "out of control," he said, when addicts are unable to get them, they resort to heroin because it's cheaper, albeit more deadly.

Fox said parents have approached him looking for help and advice with a family member who is an addict.

"I've had people describe the Narcotics Anonymous meetings as Ramapo High School reunions," he said. "There are just so many people right here that are affected by this epidemic."

And once addicted, Fox said, the expense of getting clean can run from $50,000 to $100,000.

"It starts out as recreation, and it ends up consuming and ruining every aspect of life," he said. "I don't get it, but I've seen it. It's real."